NFL Player Michael Sam may not have shattered the glass closet during his rookie stint with the St. Louis Rams, but as Lindsay Jones’s USA Today article points out, he did put a few more cracks in it:

He showed up not trying to be a civil rights advocate. He was just being himself, trying to play the sport that he loved,” [Executive Director of the You Can Play Project Wade] Davis said. “Michael Sam was the perfect individual, at the perfect time, with the perfect message – I’m a football player who also happens to be gay.”

[snip]

“The NFL is not a space where gay individuals can’t thrive in. The Rams, with great leadership from top down, showed players can adjust to all sorts of things. They got see Michael Sam as a human being, not just as a gay man,” Davis said. “The other big take away, a team can be successful with a gay player. There is not a rift.”

All it takes is one. One person to help the world take one more step toward progess. Though Michael Sam is just a man who wants to play the game he loves, just by being that person, he’s helping the world head in the direction to focus not so much on a gay player, but just on a player.